


christmas, chemistry, crushes

by sapphirestark



Series: short and sweet (tumblr drabbles) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, friday reports unusual spikes in peter's vitals, it may or may not have to do with his chemistry lab partner, peter is the christmas tree decorator extraordinaire, tony investigates via text
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 05:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17136029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphirestark/pseuds/sapphirestark
Summary: a pointless, fluffy drabble as requested on tumblr. merry christmas!could you write something where tony confronts peter about the weird spikes in vitals when he’s not wearing his suit? [...] i was just inquiring about funny awkward irondad stuff. maybe peter with a boyfriend in general?





	christmas, chemistry, crushes

“Sir, it seems that Peter is in distress.”

Tony looked up from his workbench and immediately focused on the nearest holo screen.

“How much distress are we talking, Fri?”

“Elevated heart rate and pulse, sweating, inability to focus, amongst general symptoms of discomfort.”

Tony frowned at the diagrams. The clock in the lower right corner of the hologram caught his eye. “It’s 1pm on a Friday, Friday. Why isn’t he in school?”

“He is, sir. The data was recorded by Karen in his Starkwatch.”

Tony studied the diagrams some more. It didn’t seem that much out of the ordinary; this low level of discomfort could just as well have been triggered by exam anxiety, or maybe an argument or interaction with that bully Flash.

“Fri, why are you showing me this? This isn’t an emergency.”

“Karen is programmed to alert you both in situations of immediate emergencies and, according to the Baby Takes A Nap Protocol, in continuing states of compromised well-being. It seems that Mr Parker has been experiencing distress like this every Wednesday and Friday at 1pm for three weeks.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. “Always at that time? For how long?”

“Always, sir. He seems to calm down slightly every few minutes but does not fully relax until 2.30pm.”

“That’s one class period,” Tony muttered to himself. He swiped at the holo screen and brought up Peter’s schedule.“It says he has chemistry, Fri.”

“Indeed, sir.”

“But he’s great at chemistry. He has no reason to be nervous.”

“The data seems to disagree, sir.”

“I can see that, Fri.” Tony stared at the diagrams as if they would shift into the solution.

“If I may recommend a course of action, sir?”

“Hit me, Fri.”

“It may be advisable to text Peter, maybe with a reminder that he is expected at the Tower this afternoon. It may take his mind off whatever is bothering the young sir.”

Tony just shrugged helplessly. “If you think it’ll help, do it.”

“Your message was sent.”

Tony kept a close eye on the real-time diagrams of Peter’s pulse and level of discomfort. A few seconds later, both seemed to normalise a bit.

“Young sir has read your message and is in the process of responding.” 

Tony was too relieved to be angry about Peter texting in class. If it meant that he got him out of whatever stress he was under it was worth it.

“Mr Parker has texted the following: “Can’t wait, Mr Stark. Smiling emoji. Got new idea for your Christmas tree in the lobby. Christmas tree emoji. Gift emoji. Snowflake emoji.”

Tony rolled his eyes fondly. He’d asked Peter to come up with a colour scheme for the Stark Tower Christmas tree, and Peter had taken the job very seriously. It seemed like he had ideas for an infinite number of Christmas trees, judging by how many times he’d changed the decorations plans for the one in the lobby. Tony pretended to be annoyed by it, but secretly he loved how excited Peter was about it.

The diagrams spiked up again, and Tony shook his head. “Friday, text Peter and ask him what has him so riled up.”

“Will do, sir.”

Tony grabbed his phone from one of the smaller tables of the lab. Normally Friday took care of all his texts, but he couldn’t bear another second of her reading out Peter’s excessive amount of emojis so he resorted back to manual texting.

_are u spying on me through the watch???_

>>Normally not, but Karen alerted me. Seems that every Wednesday and Friday, chemistry class leaves you all nervous. What’s that teacher making you do?

_nothing mr stark i promise_

>>Pete, I have data that says otherwise. You can’t lie to Karen.

_ok ok but it’s not the teachers fault_

>>Then whose? Anyone bullying you?

_NO i swear_

_its just_

_were doing a partner work lab project right now_

Tony frowned. He was positive Peter had done a million partner and group works before, with all that emphasis schools placed on teamwork nowadays.

>>Why does that make you so nervous?

_uhhh idk_

_im scared of messing up?_

Tony scoffed. He would've bought that in almost any other subject, maybe English or Spanish or history, but definitely not chemistry. Or maths. As if Tony Stark's intern would be bad in these subjects. 

>>Kid, please. Compared to what you do in the lab here, your chemistry class is like kindergarten. What’s the real reason?

_NO ONE_

_i mean nothing_

Tony raised his eyebrows as a slow grin spread across his face. Thank God that kid typed faster than he thought sometimes. 

>>No one, huh? Say, who’s your partner in this project?

_mr staaaark 😩😩😩_

>>Denial, huh?

Tony was full on grinning now.

_there’s nothing to deny! you can ask him!_

A small chuckle escaped Tony before he could restrain himself. Sometimes he was forcefully reminded just how young Peter still was - so innocent, defending himself from crush allegations and thinking of three hundred different ways to decorate a Christmas tree, half of which involved red and gold because "Iron Man, Mr Stark!”

>>Punctuation? You? Way to make this not credible, kid.

_…._

_gotta go mr stark, lots do to with the project_

>>I see. *surejan.gif*

_BYE mr stark_

>>We’ll continue this tonight, underoos. I want details. 

Tony smiled as he locked his phone. If anyone deserved some happiness this Christmas, it was Peter. And if the mysterious boy from chemistry class could help to make that happen, then Tony was more than happy about it. 

“Fri? Don’t send me any more alerts related to this, and let Karen know too.” 

“Will do, sir.” 

Still smiling, Tony got back to work. With a swipe, the holo screen display changed from Peter’s timetable to a sketch of the Stark Tower lobby, complete with a ceiling-high Christmas tree. 

“Fri, we’ll need more than one this year. Order one tree for every floor at least. Better yet, two.” 

Tony swore Friday sounded oddly fond. 

“Consider it done.” 

**Author's Note:**

> thought i could just as well archive these short drabbles here as well as on tumblr. feel free to say hi (sapphirestark.tumblr.com)! 
> 
> merry christmas and happy holidays!


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